Airbus SAS Chief Executive Officer Christian Streiff stepped down today after just three months on the job as the pace of his proposed reorganization of the troubled planemaker upset politicians and Airbus’s parent company.

European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co. Co-Chief Executive Louis Gallois, a former French aerospace industry executive, will replace Streiff and retain his EADS position, the company said in a statement.

Mr. Streiff, 52, was brought in by parent EADS July 3 after his predecessor, Gustav Humbert, was ousted because of growing delays and cost overruns on the A380 superjumbo jet. Mr. Streiff on October 3 announced plans to slash costs by 30% with measures including job cuts after EADS said the delays would reduce earnings by $6 billion through 2010.

“The problems at Airbus were daunting but this is also a battle between the public and private sector,” the vice president of the Teal Group, a Fairfax, Virginia-based consulting company, Richard Aboulafia, said. “That hugely complicates any restructuring effort.”

The A380 delays, first disclosed in June 2005, have angered airline customers, who are demanding compensation, and have already prompted the departure of two top executives. Former EADS co-CEO Noel Forgeard, who ran Airbus from 1998 until 2005, is under investigation by French and German authorities for selling shares months before Airbus disclosed problems with the A380. EADS shares have lost 37% of their value this year.

Mr. Gallois, 62, ran the French rail system for a decade and before that was head of France’s state-owned aerospace company, Aerospatiale Sa. He was named co-chief of EADS in July, replacing Mr. Forgeard, who was forced to step down because of the A380 overruns and the timing of his sale of EADS stock.